Starting from the Dragon Tribe!

Chapter 3

Starting From the Dragon Tribe

Chapter 3: The World of the Dragon Race

In the past, Lu Chen hated it when his comrades would smoke during the war. However, after the war, he would always reject it when someone passed him a cigarette with the reason that he was still ‘underaged’.

“You didn’t seem like an underaged boy when you were slaughtering the enemies.” When his comrades teased him, he would laugh with them as well.

Those days were difficult, but he enjoyed every moment of it. He didn’t enjoy his life now because the long war had ended. They had lost the war, and all his comrades were killed.

Even though the cage designed for him was solid, he wasn’t without a chance to flee in the past. He didn’t attempt to leave because he didn’t know where he could go.

Times have changed. Back then, a particular country in the East had dominated the world for millennia with their Mystic Warriors.

However, with the development of Western technology, the Mystic Warriors, who always charged toward their enemies with only blades in their hands, were nothing more than fools as their enemies were equipped with modern arms. Lu Chen himself was the most foolish among them.

He decided to escape from the room on this day not because he couldn’t bear with the imprisonment anymore. It was because the woman told him that humans with superpowers had started emerging, and she even wanted him to help deal with them.

Apparently, those people must be difficult to contend with. Nevertheless, he hoped that those people were not just another group of humans with firearms. Otherwise, that would be boring.

He understood that technology ruled the world now. However, his parents had always taught him not to lose hope, so he was hoping that those humans with superpowers could help him to get to the next stage in his power. Even if he couldn’t achieve it, he would rather be killed by those superhumans than those soldiers with rifles.

Certainly, he wouldn’t contend with the Western Federation now as he needed time to recuperate. If there were really superhumans, he wanted to fight with them after he restored his energy.

He had lived for two years with only the infusion of basic nutrition, so his body had become much thinner than before. It would take him at least one month to recuperate, so he had to leave the territory of Western Federation first.

The process wasn’t smooth. After escaping from four rounds of round-ups, he finally managed to reach the border in the South, which was a seemingly endless desert.

As he plucked a bullet from his left shoulder, he couldn’t help but grunt. He wasn’t invincible, so he was injured when he was shot by a sniper amidst the chaos during the last battle. Fortunately, his muscle mass was dense, and he managed to defend himself in time, so his shoulder wasn’t severely injured.

He couldn’t drive a car as he had never bothered to learn to use new technology. With only two bags of water and a pack of biscuits, it was akin to suicide if he were to cross this desert.

However, he still decided to go ahead and walked for more than a hundred kilometers. As a Mystic Warrior, he had some control over his own body by reducing perspiration so that he could retain more water in his body.

“He escaped again?!” Inside the office, a gray-haired old man landed a slap on the table. “I told you that you could just kill him on the spot!”

“President, please calm down. He’s just a Mystic Warrior.” The person being chided was a lieutenant general. He was responsible for capturing Lu Chen. 

“Just a Mystic Warrior? Do you know how many secrets are hidden in his body? He’s a treasure trove! He’s the strongest Mystic Warrior on the planet! We haven’t fully decoded the secrets in his genes yet. This is going to be a biological revolution, and you think he’s just a Mystic Warrior?” the president growled. 

The lieutenant hung his head low and reported, “He’s left the territory, so it’ll be more difficult to capture him.”

“He’s in the South, right?” With a grim expression, the President seemed to be in a dilemma. “We can’t let him flee. Use that weapon now.”

The lieutenant general was shocked upon hearing that. “The weapon is still in the development stage. Furthermore, if we kill him with it, we won’t gain anything!”

After a moment of silence, the President stared at his subordinate with his green eyes. “I’d rather kill him than let him fall into the hands of another country. Just see it as testing out our new weapon.”

“Yes…”

***

***

Sensing that something was off, Lu Chen stopped in his tracks and looked up at the sky, but all he could see was the dazzling sun. After moving the cigarette away from his mouth, he puffed out the smoke. “Superhumans… Can they overpower modern technology?” he muttered to himself and laughed in self-mockery.

The next moment, a beam of white light brighter than the sun descended from the sky, as though it was a huge falling knife. In an instant, Lu Chen’s figure disappeared as a mushroom cloud sprouted on the desert.

When Lu Chen opened his eyes again, he realized that he was in a dilapidated theater. At the same time, countless messages began springing into his mind.

He either didn’t die or was reborn. Clenching his fists, he realized that all of his energy had been restored. He was wearing the kind of robe normally found in a martial arts center instead of his own clothes. Any ordinary person in his position would be flustered. Nevertheless, he felt ecstatic instead.

He was supposed to have been killed by the next-generation weapon of the Western Federation, but he didn’t die. Meanwhile, the messages that were shown in his mind seemed to suggest that he had acquired superpowers as well.

“Explorer 63570591, please check out your mission.” A sweet female voice spoke in his ears. Sitting on the last row, he looked around cautiously but saw no one. After pulling himself together, he started recollecting the messages that had flashed across his mind just now.

He seemed to have been selected by something called Origin Space, and this was the world where he had to complete his first mission before he could go back to the space. After going through the directives, he tried to call out in his heart, Origin. 

In an instant, a semi-transparent screen with all sorts of information appeared before his eyes.

World Type: Derivative

Level of difficulty: Level 7 to Level 40

The current date in this world: 06 September 2008

Introduction: This is a world where the dragon race and other mixed races exist. The explorer will have to discover more on his own.

What a simple introduction. At this point, Lu Chen understood that there were indeed superpowers in this world.

The name of the first main mission: The Slaughter in the Theater

Content: A mixed race creature has gone mad in the theater of a small town. The slaughter will begin shortly.

Option 1: Escape from the theater

Difficulty: Easy

Reward: 300 origin coins

Penalty: None

Option 2: Kill the mad mixed race creature

Difficulty: Easy

Reward: 3000 origin coins

Penalty: None

Reminder: Your decision will lead to different results in the main mission, so please choose wisely. There won’t be any more reminders from now on.

However, Lu Chen was puzzled. It’s understandable that there’s a huge difference between the rewards, but why is the level of difficulty for both options ‘easy’?

Even though he never played any video games before, he understood that the easy option should be the least difficult. With that doubt in his mind, he started looking at his own stats. He didn’t intend to flee, so he wasn’t in a rush.

Name: Explorer 63570591

Level: Lv. 1

Reference: Apart from luck, all adults should have an average of 5 points for each attribute.

Life Source: 100%

Soul Source: 100%

Physique: 40 points

Strength: 39 points

Dexterity: 39 points

Spirit: 35 points

Charm: 9 points

Luck: 2 points

I guess life source should be hit points. What about soul source? Could it be mana points? They sound like the video game terminology my comrades used to talk about.

His physique determined the maximum limit of his life source, endurance, defensiveness, and the speed at which his wounds would heal.

His strength determined how heavy a burden he could bear, and together with dexterity, they affected the speed at which he could run and attack. His dexterity also affected his reflexivity.

As for spirit, it seemed to affect his mastery of skills and how much harm he could inflict on his enemies using certain skills. It could also be used to resist other people’s control over him.

Charm could affect the outcome of negotiations and his ability to summon certain creatures. Just like kotodama, it could be used to resist some unusual control over him.

After just one look, Lu Chen knew that he didn’t get the average attributes as he was probably more powerful than eight adults combined.

____

____